Lion Hunt
When Leoric is trapped in his Lion totem can he survive being hunted by an angry mob driven by the Darkling Lords? Synopsis In his shrine within Iron Mountain, Merklynn receives the Darkling Lords Darkstorm, Cindarr, Cravex and Lexor, who want their power staffs recharged. The wizard is willing, but only if the Visionaries go on a quest for him. A quest is the last thing Darkstorm wants, so the group storm out, swearing they'll find someone else to provide them magic. Darkstorm seeks out the witch Heskedor, finding her in a cave atop a thin mountainous peak. He explains that he wants vengeance against Leoric and that in researching through tomes and grimoires for something to use against him, Heskedor's name was mentioned as purveyor of powerful spells. Flattered at being remembered, Heskedor agrees to help. She pores through her volumes for something suitable and finds a potion that will trap a Spectral Knight in their animal form, permanently if the spell isn't broken within a day. As he flies Darkstorm back to his castle in the Sky Claw, Mortdred asks Darkstorm how he plans to use the potion. Darkstorm muses that Leoric is too smart to fall for a trap set by him, but maybe a trap set by someone else... In a nearby village, a young woman, Fletchen, moans about the new Age of Magic to her father, Gleering. Despite using a simple charm, their house, and those of their neighbours, are promptly demolished by a rampaging beast. The beast steams away, leaving only terror and questions in its path, but parks up out of sight. The Darkling Lords dismount and reveal it to be the Dagger Assault in disguise. Darkstorm revels in the cleverness of his plan and smugly notes that he knows exactly how the peasants will react. The now homeless villagers gather round a campfire and try to work out how to defend themselves the monster. Fletchen suggests that they go to Leoric of neighbouring New Valarak for help and they're soon there, petitioning the Spectral Knights to destroy the evil, magical beast. Over Arzon's protests that the creature shouldn't be killed just for being magical, Leoric agrees to help the group and travels with them, alone. The beast is quickly sighted again and Leoric rides fearlessly to meet it. Mortdred warns the rest of the Darkling Lords, who lurk behind the beast costume tending steaming cauldrons. They hide, so when Leoric arrives he finds only the beast head. Just as he realises it's a trap, the Darkling Lords attack. He manages to fight the group to a standstill and turns into his lion totem, but as soon as he does so, Darkstorm throws Heskedor's potion onto him. The usual light blue of the lion totem turns blood red. Leoric flees back to the villagers, but they confuse his totem form for another beast and attack him. The Darkling Lords look on gleefully as Leoric fails to transform back into human form and flees. The villagers have been following and arrive at the Darkling Lords, so Darkstorm introduces them as a group also hunting the beast. He sadly informs Fletchen that the beast killed Leoric. Seizing on the mob's anger, Darkstorm convinces them to swear fealty to him in exchange for his help in destroying the beast. Fletchen leaves the hunt behind and travels back to New Valarak, to tell the Spectral Knights of Leoric's demise. The Knights vow to track down the beast themselves, to kill it in revenge for Leoric's death. By the time Fletchen returns home, she finds the village preparing for war on the beast, while not having done anything to rebuild their ruined homes. Gleering stops her from taking her complaints to Darkstorm, insisting that the village needs his guidance. Shortly, the villagers are being led around by the Dagger Assault in search of the beast. Fletchen is sent off to some monoliths, where she finds Leoric, still trapped in his totem form. Her terror as the creature pins her to stone fades after it scratches out the name "Leoric" with a claw. Believing Leoric to have been bewitched, Fletchen resolves to hide Leoric from the hunting party, so she can explain his situation to them. They have already been discovered though, and the villagers attack again, believing they are saving Fletchen. She tries to explain that Leoric is the beast, but no-one listens. The Dagger Assault arrives and chases Leoric into a gully. He manages to evade a catapulted boulder and escapes up a hill the Dagger Assault can't climb. Running free, he immediately blunders into a trap set by the Spectral Knights. Cryotek, Witterquick and Ectar hear the trap go off and retrieve its bagged contents. The group prepare to kill the creature, but Fletchen arrives in time to tell them it's Leoric. They open the bag and are surprised to find that Leoric is red. This confuses Fletchen, that the colour is more important than that he's a lion, which Arzon brushes off by casually mentioning they're all magic users. Aghast, Fletchen warns the evil magicians away, but the group explain that using magic doesn't automatically make someone evil - would Leoric have offered to help her if he was evil? Convinced, Fletchen tells the group that Leoric can't change back because he's been bewitched, so Arzon consults the Bearer of Knowledge. The being informs them that Heskedor is the likely culprit but that they must reach her, seven leagues beyond Cape Terror, before the suns set otherwise Leoric will be trapped as a lion forever. Witterquick uses Light Speed to reach Heskedor and confronts the witch. She cackles with delight at news that her potion worked and refuses Witterquick's demand for an antidote, after all, she has her reputation for customer service to think of. After dodging Heskedor's energy blasts, Witterquick uses some physical persuasion to get an antidote out of the witch, but he has to a strict deadline to work to and can't use Light Speed for his return journey. Undaunted, he transforms into his cheetah totem and runs. Cryotek, Feryl, Arzon and Fletchen await Witterquick's return, guarding Leoric. They're spotted by a few of the villagers, who deduce that the Spectral Knights must be the creature's minions. Meanwhile, Darkstorm is dictating the next phase of the hunt, dismissing Gleering's suggestion that they should be seeking shelter for the night. The village scouts rush over and announce that they've found the beast and its evil magicians less than furlong away, hiding in a gully. Darkstorm rallies his mob to take out the beast. Gleering begs that they don't hurt his daughter and Darkstorm assures him they won't, before quietly telling Lexor not to try too hard to save her. As the suns draw down, Witterquick continues his voyage and the mob reaches Leoric. Over Fletchen's protests, the mob attacks Leoric and Lexor goes for the woman. Leoric leaps for the Darkling Lord, forcing him to turn into his armadillo form for safety. This terrifies the mob, but before the Darkling Lords can regain control of the situation, Witterquick arrives and douses Leoric with the antidote. Finally back to human form, Leoric explains Darkstorm's plot to the villagers. Before they can attack, Darkstorm turns on them with the Dagger Assault. Standing firm in its path, Cryotek summons Strength, the arrow toppling the Dagger Assault. Though they're able to recover it, the Lords can't repair its weapons and are forced to flee. Later, the Spectral Knights help to rebuild the village. Leoric brushes off Gleering's thanks, asking only that he not be so intolerant of magic users in future. Fletchen agrees that it's not magic that makes someone evil, but what they do with it. Characters In order of appearance Quotes Leoric: How do you know it's magical? Gleering: It's like no animal that's ever lived. It has to be magical. It's evil and loathsome and it needs to be slain. Arzon: Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it's evil. Leoric: Arzon. :- Leoric has heard it all from Arzon before. "Girl! Go search those monoliths!" "Sire, what if it's in there?" "Why, shout. And I'll personally send someone to help you." :- Lexor really knows how to charm Fletchen "We're not silly, superstitious peasants that lash out at anything we do not understand." "Growl" "Well, we thought you were dead." :- Even as a lion, Leoric can shame Cryotek. Notes Animation and technical errors *The first act cliffhanger rather cheats a bit with Leoric being crushed by the standing stone. The second act shows he dodging out of the way, from a different camera angle, but his movement should have been visible in the first. *Witterquick's staff doesn't make the journey to Heskedor's cave with him. *Cindarr's power staff is miscoloured in Spectral Knight silver while it stands in the Dagger Assault. *In the final shot, Leoric's armour is miscoloured as Ectar's. Story errors *The Darkling Lords go from wanting their power staffs recharged to specifically looking for a scheme to use against Leoric. Darkstorm doesn't even mention his power staff to Heskedor. *There are 500 different species of lion on Prysmos (really?!) and Fletchen's village apparently can't recognise any of them. Continuity notes *First appearance of Fletchen. Trivia *Heskedor says it's nice to be remembered after "ten millennia". Presumably this means she lived through the previous Age of Magic and the Age of Technology. *Heskedor's ancient tomes contain magic specifically created to be used on Spectral Knights, suggesting that the name predates its usage by the current group. Did the first Age of Magic have its own Spectral Knights? *The Metrodome DVD includes a recording script for the episode, from which hints of cut elements can be gleaned. These include: **The Spectral Knights are engaged in some sort of sport when the villagers arrive to petition them (one that Arzon can cheat at by using his totem). **Leoric also specifically mentions that those villagers are scared of magic, which explains why he goes there on horseback rather than in the Capture Chariot. **Gleering also questions the Darkling Lords' Dagger Assault, though unfortunately this page is poorly scanned and Darkstorm's response is unreadable except for "oozing sarcasm". **There's also a cut line that explains why the Darkling Lords bother to keep hunting Leoric after cursing him - to make sure he doesn't get any help before sundown. Home Media Releases *Hi-Tops Video Volume 5 *Metrodome Complete Series DVD References Category:Fiction Category:Animated Series